Celia cultivated my idleness like sacred art.
Days melted into feasts and featherbed naps. My human form stabilized—though flickering out like a snuffed candle after mere hours.
"Why cage yourself in skin?" Celia scoffed, lazing in her fox shape. "This is freedom." She bounded over boulders to prove it.
The idyll shattered when Silas yanked me from our den.
I sat cross-legged, chicken leg in one hand, grape cluster in the other—grease shining on my chin.
His descent stirred leaves like green snow.
Joy lit his face—until he saw my feast.
"Two years." His voice crackled. "I scoured every ravine while you... picnicked?"
Scruff-grabbed, I dangled mid-air. "Easy! Human necks snap like twigs!"
He loosened his grip with a "Hmph. Still pampered."
Rubbing reddened skin, I pouted. "Flesh vessels bruise easily!"
Only then did he really see me—the woman where tiger once stood.
I twirled, silk sleeves flaring. "Behold! Peach-bloom cheeks! Spring-fed eyes!" My proudest achievement.
Celia called it vanity. I called it... motivational anatomy.
Silas' gaze snagged on my waist. A blush exploded from his ears—a crimson tide swallowing pale skin.
"Enough dallying!" He seized my wrist. "Eldric's council awaits—"
THUD.
A crimson cannonball slammed into his ribs.
Celia materialized, fangs bared at his throat.
"Felicity chooses her own path!"